Ok, I just finished a batch of rovings that were Merino. It seems like they didn't want to take up any water in the soak in the begining. I had vinegar in it. I then put it in the pot to dye it and it almost seems to just roll off the wool. I have this issue with merino only so I am not sure if any of you have seen this. I know I totally dig Faithins colors of her her yarns to think off the top of my head. Do you dye in the wool or after you spin. I have done both methods and don't seem to get very good results with even coverage. I am using commercially processed roving from Copper Moose. HELP!!!

Whenever I dye anything that's wool (fabric, yarn, or fiber) I always do a presoak for at least a half hour in room temp water and a few drops of Synthrapol, which is a really fiber-safe detergent. All you need is a couple drops and that should let the wool start to absorb water. If you don't have access to Synthrapol (you can order it through Dharma or Pro-Chem, or also get it at quilt shops), I'm pretty sure you could use Dawn hand dishwashing detergent or maybe even Eucalan. I've just always used Synthrapol since that's what I have a ton of. I also normally put a few drops into the dyebath as well to increase dye absorbtion. I've never had a problem with the wool not taking the dye that way.

thanks for liking my colors! i will tell you my secrets. depending on the effect i'm going for, i dye pretty much the same way, and either presoak the wool or not. i presoak if i want a solid, uniform color, and don't if i don't care. (i dye in a pot on the stovetop, and usually do one color at a time. i handpaint in the microwave)

i split my rovings into 24" lengths and sortof fold them into Us, then put them in my sink filled with hot water. then i take a spoon and squish them down into the water until the water is fully absorbed. it works to stab them a little to open them up and get the water in, because (from coppermoose especially) their rovings are really compressed. sometimes it takes a while, but they go from being white to ... well, looking like they're full of water. then i grab all that i want to put in the dyebath, squeeze them out, and put them into the pot. for me, the water must cover all of the wool to get an even dye, but this usually works.

then when i don't care or want an uneven dye, i shake my lengths out to get them to "bloom" a little, then put them in.

for all of these methods, though, i make sure that the water is HOT when i put the dye in, almost to a boil. i stir it completely and make sure there are no more dye particles floating around, then put in the vinegar and bring it back up to temperature. THEN i put the wool in. keep just under a boil until the water runs clear (except for tough colors like dark greens and hot fuschia, then i use synthrapol in the rinse water).

that's what works for me! i hope i made sense but i'm like super tired this morning.

Sweet, I think I have found some new methods. I am trying to squish the wool into the water and seperate it a bit to let it absorb water before I try to dye. My presoak i was only using vinegar but I will try the soap you guys mentioned. I will give that stuff a try the next time I do rovings. Thanks for your help as usual...I so get inspired by what I see here.

be really careful how much synthrapol you use in the dyebath if you do it that way, because i felted the CRAP out of like 2oz of merino using it. it was the first and only time i have felted, and i was pissed.

I only use a few drops when I use Synthrapol, and as long as you don't mainpulate the fiber too much during dyeing and the cooling off period it should be fine. The only problems I've ever had were when I had to keep re-dyeing the same roving over and over (it started off looking bad, and then it got worse). But even then, the roving was salvageble with pre-drafting.

If you can't get Synthropol, I use Ivory dishwashing soap. (I use it to bathe my horses, too, and it leaves them much softer and shinier even than Suave or horse shampoo. Doesn't strip the oils from their coats. So, I figure if it's good enough for horse hair when it's still attached to the horse...)

As far as felting goes, I've had it happen twice: once when the first dye didn't work and I ran it through a second dye bath. I don't know that I did anything except overcook it, but maybe I get impatient. Nothing was going to fix that one, so I used it to stuff something else. The other time, I got impatient, and tried to rinse the stuff before it was cool. THAT was just plain stupid of me, and I actually knew I was being stupid. Fortunately, that wasn't a complete loss, and i used the resulting semi-felted roving, spun as well as I could manage it, to knit into felted cat toys.

Will the wool shrink down if it boils? That is one of my questions when dying on the stove-top. I guess I'm a little ditzy around the edges with wool still... but I have had my pots simmer accidentally, and no shrinkage that I knew of occured...

(I use it to bathe my horses, too, and it leaves them much softer and shinier even than Suave or horse shampoo. Doesn't strip the oils from their coats. So, I figure if it's good enough for horse hair when it's still attached to the horse...)

haha...as a side note, My grandad uses that stuff to wash his hair AND bathe in. I remember thinking, "what the heck?" when I was a kid and I would see dish soap in the bathroom. No one else in my family does this...just him...he's weird.